Former Iraqi mayor held in relation to police station attack

WASHINGTON - The former acting mayor of Falluja and two US-trained Iraqi civil defence workers are being held on suspicion of involvement in devastating insurgent raids in the Iraqi town last weekend, the Pentagon has said.

At least 27 Iraqis died and 35 people were wounded in last Saturday's well co-ordinated attacks on a police station and civil defence headquarters in the restive town west of Baghdad.

Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita and Army Brig Gen David Rodriguez told reporters at a briefing that the former acting mayor and two civil defence corps workers were among Iraqis being questioned in connection with the incident.

"The mayor was suspected, just based on the situation. And the people on the ground determined that they thought he might have something to do with it. So they detained him and we're interrogating him and trying to get to the bottom of it," said Rodriguez, deputy director of the US military's Joint Staff.

The United States has trained and fielded more than 200,000 Iraqi security personnel. Di Rita said two Civil defence Corps workers were detained, adding, "So they were obviously vetted and were able to slip through somehow." Rodriguez said US forces were conducting background checks "the best we can" on Iraqis being trained for security jobs.

"But we're not sure we'll ever get that to the perfect level," the general said.

Di Rita said one of the attackers who was killed was confirmed to be a former Iraqi Army major.

"We have detained the mayor ... several people have been detained. But we have not got to the bottom of that. And we continue to do the interrogations and search for the answers on who was actually behind it," Di Rita added.

Di Rita and Rodriguez did not identify by name any of those being questioned or say why they suspected that the attack might have included help from local Iraqi officials.

However, Falluja is a hotbed of anti-US sentiment and lies in an area known as the Sunni Triangle, the former power base for deposed President Saddam Hussein.

Police said dozens of prisoners escaped from jails in the police station during the attack, one of the latest in a series of strikes on US-backed Iraqi forces.

At virtually the same time on Saturday, attacks involving mortars, explosives and light machine guns, occurred on a nearby Iraqi Civil defence Corps, or ICDC, headquarters as well as the mayor's office, according to Iraqi officials.

Di Rita and Rodriguez said the insurgents cut telephone lines to the police station and that caused delays in response from both ICDC fighters and a US military Quick Reaction Force. The Americans took no part in the fight after civil defence workers said they preferred to handle the matter.

The Pentagon officials could not explain why the police station apparently had no radio communications with the civil defence office.

"The civil defence corps responded the quickest ... they were about five minutes away and they took up the fight and retook the police station in time," Rodriguez said.

"The American QRF, which was about five to 10 minutes away, responded immediately to the civil defence corps (attack) -- which they obviously had better communications with -- at which time the civil defence corps commander said, 'We can handle it. The only assistance we need right now is ammunition and arms,"' Rodriguez added.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq